Decision 'not yet made on metro'

No decision has been made about building a metro system in Dublin, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, insisted yesterday, …

No decision has been made about building a metro system in Dublin, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, insisted yesterday, dismissing ideas "floated" by government colleagues.

Fine Gael's spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, had questioned a proposal by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, that a metro could be funded through a public private partnership for €350 million a year for 30 years. Mr Bruton, an economist, said the interest rate would be 14.5 per cent through a PPP.

How could this tally with the 4.3 per cent Mr McCreevy said was the cost for the State to borrow money, Mr Bruton asked.

When Mr McCreevy said that no decision had been made about building a metro system, Mr Bruton said some ministers "seem to be floating these ideas".

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Mr McCreevy said the development of PPP projects in Ireland "has been patchy to say the least". It was his goal to have more and "fairly strict criteria" applied. However a balance had to be struck. "If a PPP project is too unattractive, it will not be taken up. If it is made too generous the State loses."

Later Mr Bruton criticised the Minister for his failure to make a decision about decentralisation projects. The Fine Gael finance spokesman said the Minister had promised to have a radical decentralisation programme in place by the end of 2000 and now he needed to consult more people before taking a decision.

Mr McCreevy said a wide variety of considerations had to be taken into account. Every TD and senator had to be consulted and a lot of people outside the House. They had received 120 applications and he hoped to "dispense with this matter in the near future".

Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton asked was the Government saving the announcement as a "sweetener" before the European and local elections or was he waiting until afterwards. Mr McCreevy replied: "I will do everything I can to assist the Labour Party's campaign."

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times